Muawad Mustafa Rashid

Overview:

World Environment Day 2022 is the biggest international day for the environment. Led by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and held annually since 1973, it has grown to be the largest global platform for environmental outreach. It is celebrated by millions of people across the world.

World Environment Day 2022 is hosted by Sweden. “Only One Earth” is the campaign slogan, with the focus on “Living Sustainably in Harmony with Nature”. 

World Environment Day urges all of us to protect our natural surroundings. The stunning facts? An estimated 7 million people die each year from causes related to air pollution, with a majority occurring in the Asia-Pacific region. This day, which falls on June 5, encourages worldwide activism. That means everything from littering to climate change. World Environment Day is both a global celebration and a platform for public outreach.

China, which now owns half the world’s electric vehicles and 99 percent of the world’s electric buses, hosted the 2019 event. “The country has demonstrated tremendous leadership in tackling air pollution domestically,” said Acting Head of UN Environment Joyce Msuya. “It can now help spur the world to greater action.” The UN first established World Environment Day in 1972.

Appropriate Ecological and Environmental Principles Required:

World Environment Day is a global event to celebrate the environment and encourage action on the climate crisis.

With the growth of catastrophic environmental phenomena worldwide and the effects of climate change on society, especially in recent years, represented by floods, rising temperatures, fluctuations in rain rates, and other effects, what prompts us to air a sincere national appeal to avoid the certain losses which will inevitably affect all of us.

Allah the Almighty granted our country with rich natural resources that are among the first in the global ranking in terms of richness of diversity and abundance.

We hereby call on all media outlets to mobilize enthusiasm and unify efforts to protect the environment and natural resources to aim at supporting sustainable development efforts through awareness and monitoring actions.

Our role revolves around the struggle to rebuild an ecological society that respects the environment and calls for the values of human solidarity and justice.

We propose the formation of a pressing force towards considering the environment and human beings as the basis in the decision-making process besides developing the policies aiming at the advancement of society and the strengthening of its steadfastness.

We urge all actors, activists, and those interested in environmental work to organize popular activities concerned with activating the role of individuals as well as families by raising awareness of important environmental and ethical issues e.g. ethics of consumption, planting and protecting trees, the importance of traditional municipal agriculture in preserving the environment and human dignity, health and strengthening the local economy based on the dependence and preservation of local resources and living organisms.

We also call on the concerned institutions to adopt policies related to renewable energy, recycling plastic waste and organic waste, increasing the green spaces, and reducing pollution by encouraging dependence on environmentally friendly machinery.

On this day the whole world celebrates the environment, it is not a luxury as seen by many, but we are reminded of the environmental economic, and social damages caused by some greedy humans and also to create an effective community awareness that adopts policies to change the catastrophic environmental landscape.

In this regard, we call on the concerned authorities to find out solutions to the problems of destroying nature i.e. the frequent cutting of forests, besides working out a plan to stop importing genetically modified seeds, and in return adopting a policy to restore, preserve and improve local organic seeds.

To help overcome climate change and environmental challenges, it is high time to promote actions that introduce sustainable production and consumption practices, address pollution and limit greenhouse gas emissions.

Sudan is also suffering from climate change, notably through the intensified El Nino phenomenon, which delays rains, causes low rainfall, and intermittent dry spells. It results in reduced cultivation areas, delayed planting, poor pastures, and limited water availability for both people and their livestock.

In short, we urge the government to set a national strategic policy and harsh punishment against violators to preserve the remaining forests, besides adopting national plans to invest in land use based on appropriate ecological and environmental principles.